Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by recurrent bouts of rectal bleeding and bloody diarrhea. The initial inflammatory reaction begins in the rectal mucosa in over 95% of cases and may extend in a contiguous fashion to involve the whole colon (Hendrickson, 2002).
Histologically, ulcerative colitis is manifest by mainly neutrophil infiltration into the colonic mucosal crypts of Lieberkuhn leading to a neutrophilic cryptitis and the formation of micro crypt abscesses, which coalesce to form bleeding macroscopic mucosal ulcerations. Neutrophilic secretion of tissue destructive cytokines and oxygen radicals leads to a chronic crypt destructive colitis that can involve the entire colon (Carpenter, 2000).
On a populational level, ethnic variation of glutathione peroxidase has been recorded with individuals of Jewish or Mediterranean origin exhibiting lower activities (The Metabolic and Molecular Basis of Inherited Disease, 2001, 8th ed., p. 4650). A two to four fold increase in incidence and prevalence of ulcerative colitis has also been reported for these ethnic groups (Roth et al., 1989).
There remains a need in the art for therapeutic modalities to treat inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis. The present invention addresses this need.